Culture Street

Books

How to be Famous by Caitlin Moran

I’m Johanna Morrigan, and I live in London in 1995, at the epicentre of Britpop. I might only be nineteen, but I’m wise enough to know that everyone around me is handling fame very, very badly.But how can one woman stop a bad, famous, powerful man? Buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.

Calypso by David Sedaris

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself. Buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.

Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys

London 1948: Eve Forrester is trapped in a loveless marriage, in a gloomy house, in a grey suburb.Out of the blue, she received a solicitor’s letter. A wealthy stranger has left her a mystery inheritance but in order to find out more, she must travel to the glittering French Riviera.Eve discovers her legacy is an enchanting villa overlooking the Mediterranean sea and suddenly, life could not be more glamorous.But while she rubs shoulders with film-stars and famous writers, under the heat of the golden sun, rivals to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge. Rivals who want her out of the way.Alone in paradise, Eve must unlock the story behind her surprise bequest – before events turn deadly… Buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn’t let anything stop her.But now someone else is standing in her way – Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret – the worst thing she’d ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine – and it blew their friendship apart.Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for. Buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life: when she was eleven and her mother disappeared, being proposed to at twenty-one, the accident that would make her a widow at forty-one. At each of these moments, Willa ended up on a path laid out for her by others.So when she receives a phone call telling her that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot and needs her help, she drops everything and flies across the country. The spur-of-the moment decision to look after this woman – and her nine-year-old daughter, and her dog – will lead Willa into uncharted territory. Surrounded by new and surprising neighbours, she is plunged into the rituals that make a community, and takes pleasure in the most unexpected things. Buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.

The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl

Cecilia Wilborg has it all–a loving husband, two beautiful daughters and a gorgeous home in the affluent Norwegian town of Sandefjord. And she works hard to keep it all together. Too hard. Because one mistake from her past could bring it all crashing down around her.Annika Lucasson lives a dark life with her abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend. She’s lost everything one too many times and now she’s got one last chance to save herself, thanks to Cecilia. Annika knows her secret–and just how much she’s willing to do to make it all go away…When someone forgets to pick up their little boy at the local pool, Cecilia agrees to take him home, only to find an abandoned, empty house. It’s the first step in the unraveling of her meticulously crafted life, as her and Annika’s worlds collide… You can buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

At twenty-six, Lillian feels trapped by life. Her marriage to Charles Oberon has not turned out the way she expected it would. To her it seems she is just another object captured within the walls of Cloudesley, her husband's beautiful manor house tucked away high in the Chiltern Hills. But, with a young step-son and a sister to care for, Lillian accepts there is no way out for her. Then Charles makes an arrangement with an enigmatic artist visiting their home and his presence will unbalance everything she thought she knew and understood.Maggie Oberon ran from the hurt and resentment she caused. Half a world away, in Australia, it was easier to forget, to pretend she didn't care. But when her elderly grandmother, Lillian, falls ill she must head back to Cloudesley. Forced to face her past, Maggie fights to hold herself and her family's legacy together as she learns that all she thought was real, all that she held so close, was never as it seemed. You can buy the book here in Australia and here in the UK.